Issue - meetings

To consider PowerPoint presentation providing an overview of the consultation - there will be verbal feedback at the meeting on the responses received.

Note – the Chair will allow 50 minutes for this agenda item.

The Committee received a presentation outlining this consultation and received an update on the responses received as at 21 October 2024

The Executive will be considering recommendations at the meeting on 4 November 2024 which will also include proposals about monitoring.

Agreed that the Sufficiency Strategy will be added to work plan and as an agenda item at December mtg.

The Committee was generally supportive of the proposals and plans; has concerns about how will be implemented; need to be child focussed; like to be kept up dated – item to March ’25 meeting.

The Committee received a presentation from Amelia Walker, Service Director, Education, providing feedback in the consultation on funding and provision for children with additional needs, and received an update on the responses received as at 21 October 2024.  

The Committee discussed the presentation in detail and the following points were raised and responded to:

• the Chair asked what the next step is for these proposals and was advised by the officers that the plan is for the proposals to be taken to the November Executive meeting and will reflect the comments of the Committee.  

• a member sought clarity on monitoring of spending – explained that the report to the Executive will cover this issue. 

• Is it possible to make the phasing of these proposals as short and financially feasible as possible? There is no surety on phasing timescales currently due to dependence on finance outcomes once the proposals are introduced.  

• A member sought clarity on proposal number 5 – incentives and disincentives and officers provided an explanation.  

• Members agreed that the plan presented by the officers is a wonderful plan but sought assurance on how to bring it to fruition – money coming from other budgets; all the enablers needed to deliver the proposals are already in place; proposal to change staffing structure quite considerably to have staff do jobs that are not being done currently; £20.9 million in capital allocation that has not been spent to be brought back and under the Sufficiency Strategy. 

• Movement of children around the proposed stages – no mechanism currently in place to coordinate moving between the stages leading to pupils being stuck in spaces that are costing the Council a lot of money; department is working with educational psychology in the pupil referral units to start looking at this and the consultation is the first stage.  

• Number of children in crisis that cannot be supported, and should the Executive agree with the proposals on 4^th of November 2024, the plan would go into delivery mode as soon as possible. Officers said they are working at pace but due to the time constraints, the programme is being designed in parallel. 

• The consultations end today, are there any open-ended questions and where with the feedback be going? – AI support was used to analyse responses and some key areas have been identified, the officers plan on reading all the feedback and add it to the final proposals going to Executive.  

In conclusion, the Chair summarised that there is general concern about monitoring the implementation of the plans presented; importance of collaborating with partners but it to be a child-centric approach. He asked to be kept up to date on the implementation feedback and it was agreed that an update will be brought to the March meeting of the Committee.